Human beings invented various ideas (knowledge, money, religion, God…).
It's always amazing that many people around the world got dogmatically swept by two conflicting creeds, albeit forced on societies through repressive methods.
Imagine the world was ordered otherwise and greed did not breed greed in religions, and WEALTH PURSUE did not underlie any religion and thus causing all those conflicts. Then imagine the world woke up one day and a voice was saying that all was wrong and done in vain. As Islam claims to be the truth path afterwards

Perfect knowledge is unattainable, Inconvertible knowledge is beyond human Intellect, therefore ideas that claim to hold this truth are bound to be false and can be forced on society only by repressive methods.
Perhaps the European knowledge society had been asking many questions and finally realized that religion and God are both superficial concepts, invented by man (realizing to such extent that even in the biblical book of creation, religion wasn’t on the list), and are now living the natural way. Good for them. At last you can rule your own world and be in communion with your own God in your heart.
They are also grumpy because those who have not seen the light are too discomforting, as ever!

Christianity became an official credo of the Roman Empire 1700 years ago only when it was perceived to be a true source of wealth after all. Islam was not accepted by the Saudis for centuries, until it was perceived to be a true source of wealth after all. But then, human societies had been in existence much , much longer before these inventions.
Why do people not ask the credibility of such later inventions/revelations that were also not made to all mankind, but made popular only on conquered lands? Why the duplication and inconsistencies? Why the repressions/persecutions? Could it be the unique, Lord God truly in action? You do not need to believe in the uniqueness of the sun, death, love… they exist independent of your knowledge.

The first time I read through the book of Revelation I was horror struck, and was asking, ‘this unfair message was written by whom, to whom and for whom?’ Unfair because it favors those who never accept him but promised destructions to those who now seem to accept him more!
No followers, no leaders
No human society, no God/gods
Every human society has an idea of god
There’s not a universally accepted god
There’s not a universally authentic religion

Human beings invented various ideas (knowledge, money, religion, God…).
It's always amazing that many people around the world got dogmatically swept by two conflicting creeds, albeit forced on societies through repressive methods.
Imagine the world was ordered otherwise and greed did not breed greed in religions, and WEALTH PURSUE did not underlie any religion and thus causing all those conflicts. Then imagine the world woke up one day and a voice was saying that all was wrong and done in vain. As Islam claims to be the truth path afterwards

Perfect knowledge is unattainable, Inconvertible knowledge is beyond human Intellect, therefore ideas that claim to hold this truth are bound to be false and can be forced on society only by repressive methods.
Perhaps the European knowledge society had been asking many questions and finally realized that religion and God are both superficial concepts, invented by man (realizing to such extent that even in the biblical book of creation, religion wasn’t on the list), and are now living the natural way. Good for them. At last you can rule your own world and be in communion with your own God in your heart.
They are also grumpy because those who have not seen the light are too discomforting, as ever!

Christianity became an official credo of the Roman Empire 1700 years ago only when it was perceived to be a true source of wealth after all. Islam was not accepted by the Saudis for centuries, until it was perceived to be a true source of wealth after all. But then, human societies had been in existence much , much longer before these inventions.
Why do people not ask the credibility of such later inventions/revelations that were also not made to all mankind, but made popular only on conquered lands? Why the duplication and inconsistencies? Why the repressions/persecutions? Could it be the unique, Lord God truly in action? You do not need to believe in the uniqueness of the sun, death, love… they exist independent of your knowledge.

The first time I read through the book of Revelation I was horror struck, and was asking, ‘this unfair message was written by whom, to whom and for whom?’ Unfair because it favors those who never accept him but promised destructions to those who now seem to accept him more!
No followers, no leaders
No human society, no God/gods
Every human society has an idea of god
There’s not a universally accepted god
There’s not a universally authentic religion

The author seems to give no credence to the fact that these Christians are merely holding a peaceful conference of like-minded believers to sort out the way forward for an organized religion. It overlooks that Christians are being persecuted openly in much of the world and are not even allowed to gather to worship or pray. In what country are Muslims, for instance, not allowed to practice their religion? In what country with Christian-type precepts underpinning its constitution are gays stoned or forbidden to...do gay things? I agree with the commenter who said this is wooly and full of half-truths; there's too much vacillating to really get any point across. The clincher was contrasting the notion of billions of well-meaning believers seeing the cross as a symbol of redemption with...the Gulf war? The Gulf war where a murderous despot, who was no friend to anyone who believes in human dignity, was removed from power. I see.

To come back to the article; It's rather woolly,full of truths and even more half-truths,and difficuilt to see what point the author really wants to make.If it is about confrontations between Christians from Western Europe and Midlle Eastern Christians, that issue will simply disappear in the foreseeable future. Many Middle East observers make the prognosis that within twenty years there will be no Christians left in the Middle East. E.g. Turkey had some two million Christians in the year 1900. Currently this figure has come down to 15000 and is further diminishing every year. It'strange the author does not know this or even bring up this issue.

In Europe Christians were spoiled until some decades ago and they complain from a very high level. The european society became more and more secular and atheistic. The concept of a God is refused by a significant growing number of people. That makes a hard standing for any religion, especially when their philosophy includes creationism or no-sex education. Then they definitely collide with the modern and knowledge driven society and state. It could be said: "In Europe people have no freedom to be happy idiots". There is currently a vacuum, that is filled by esoteric circles (and Scientology is regarded as an esoteric business here) which is slowly filled by buddhism. It seems the winning trend in Europe is toward atheistic buddhism. It shows dramatic growth rates (from a microbic level). I would guess that maybe in 100 years Europe could be the main centre for zen-like buddhism, because that fits to european culture more than anything else: care of environment, social society, liberal sexuality, no god

Most of those who call themselves Christians, are just name-sake Christians, who may religiously follow the superficial rituals but are quite 'un-Christian' in their daily lives. Greed, pride, envy, selfishness, hubris, self-righteous hypocrisy & other narcissistic vices prevail over them.
Like you say, Buddhism appears to be slowly filling the spiritual & moral vacuum existing in the west. This trend, I feel, is far better than phoney 'un-Christians' crowding the landscape.

Name-sake Christians have moral, compassion and empathy. A lot of this "moral" is written down in European constitutions, which, as far I am aware of, are not referring to God. So the underlying fundament of European cultures and politics is god-less. The majority of social moral is transferred to legal framework. Still, laws are no philosphy for daily life, so something that correlates with the social framework will fill this empty niche. When a fast rising number of people become vegetarians or vegans because of moral responsibility something is going on. When muslims here start to convert to buddhism something fundamental is changing. And it definitely has a positive impact. Immigration increases and there is currently no big church in Europe that can offer integrative solutions. The catholic church here and islam are not integrative. The only open philosophy that can offer integration seems to be this European buddhism that is developping from a combination of all traditions that are immigrating into something new. That will be interesting to observe.

''I ask the author of this article to try to settle up a stand in cosmopolitan Istanbul trying to give Christian literature to people walking by. Try that.''

I've never seen anyone at a stall in Istanbul trying to give Muslim literature to anyone for that matter.

(Though you can sometimes pick up stuff at some mosques, though even there, no-one tends to ''hand it out'' to those walking by). The receivers of such literature need to show active interest in it, in order to get attention.

There is however, an interesting, quality Christian bookshop on the main tourist street, near the many churches (some often visited, even by 'Muslims' (just fancy that!) that line this street in central Istanbul, leading to Taksim square.

Turkey is actually remarkably religiously tolerant, compared to other predominantly Muslim nations. I credit Kemal Ataturk for deliberately making Turkey a secular political power, rather than a religious one.

You are referring to the 1920s, hardly relevant at present. Ataturk's choice of the army as a counter-balance to the Islamic establishment - which he despised - has now been neutered by the current intensely pro-Islamic government. Americans would assume that when the civilian authority prevails over the military hierarchy,democracy is the winner. Ataturk felt otherwise. Time will tell whether Mr. Erdogan's victories enhance Turkish justice or simply fuel the dreams of a revived caliphate across the Islamic world.

No, but you can see people doing that in Berlin, in London, in Brussels. And Christians cannot do it EVEN in Istanbul.
Here in Europe you can actually see Turkish religious people being very active. Try to see how the situation would be if Europeans would do that in Turkey. And I use Turkey because that's supposed to be the most secular country in the region.

Yuruani, in Turkey no-one would stop anyone, Muslim, Christian whatever from going into a church and talking about religion with the people who work there.
Ditto in mosques.
I think this is right and am fed up with being pestered by so-called 'Christians' telling me that Jesus loves me, knocking on doors of private houses to save our souls and all the rest, whether Jehovah's witnesses or whatever.
If you want institutionalised religion (though it beats me quite why ANY 'religion' needs institutions to conjure up, or is it inculcate 'belief', 'faith' or whatever), then go to the institutions that serve the purpose.
I think the freedom not to be pestered by cranks is quite an important one. Ditto actually, the freedom not to be pestered by anyone 'selling' whatever message they may have, whether in the name of commercial advertising or not.
How many 'Muslims' have pestered you lately, in any attempt to convert you to their faith in a true religion?
Hordes of them?
Have you only ''seen' them? Were they pestering others, if not you?
If so, then maybe I'll start to understand your point of view, though not your ignorance of a situation in Turkey, preceding your pronouncements on the country.
The Christian shop I mentioned on Istanbul's main tourist and shopping street sells Bibles, and Bibles in Turkish too, though it doesn't give the word of God away for free.
Anyone can go in, browse, even buy what they want.
Then they could go to church a few metres away if they want, and discuss contents, pray, receive the word of God, whatever.
No-one will stop them in that!
Sant' Antonio is quite largely frequented for one example, though probably more by tourists of all sorts of religions than the 'faithful'.
Hey, the Turkish government even has a policy of restoring those of such institutional buildings that are of historic or architectural interest in Turkey, and not just for tourists, but also for the praise-be-to-Jesus faithful happy-clappers!
The very thought of it!!!!

I actually don't want people pestering anyone but I want the same rights for Christians/Buddhists/agnostics/atheists in Muslim countries as for Muslims/Buddhists/agnostics/atheists in Europe.

Turkey is, as I said, the most open Muslim country. Try to do that in Morocco or Algeria. Try the same in Jordan or Iran, Iraq or even Egypt.
Don't even think about Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia spends billions in Salafist literature to be sold cheaply in Belgium or Germany but does not allow Christians to practice their own religion.

As for Turkey: Santoro, a priest, was killed in 2006, a couple of foreign priests were killed there in 2007, but yeah, other than, Christians are fairing pretty well in Turkey compared to the rest of Muslim society and the situation has actually improved since the current Islamic party is in power. But again: Turkey is by far, infinitely so, more secular than anything else in the Muslim world.

''It fails to see that some people have difficulty associating Christianity with freedom.''

Certainly, when Christianity is understood, as it is by too many, as associated with hard right political views - in some cases (such as Greece's) - with neo-nazi violence, intolerance of others and racism.

The deepest Christian values of non-violent selflessness in the service of others, especially the less fortunate, mean very little in the wealthy, privileged circles of identity obsessed 'Europeans' and North Americans, who wish to characterise themselves as exclusive and (apparently) 'Christian', defending the castles of their wealth from perceived assault and siege by the less privileged in revolt.

fwdinsight: See 'Churches denounce Israel violence against Christians' at http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=594717, where it is reported that 'The statement was signed by heads of all recognized churches in the Holy Land including the Roman Orthodox Church, the Latin Church, the Armenian Orthodox Church, the Custodian of the Holy Land, the Coptic Orthodox Church, the Syriac Orthodox Church, the Ethiopian Church, the Roman Catholic Church, the Maronite Church, the Episcopal Church, the Lutheran Church, the Syriac Catholic Church, and the Armenian Catholic Church.'
This is but the latest incident in which ultra-extremist haredim Jewish settlers and religious fanatics are attacking Christians in the Holy Land.
This sort of behaviour is simply not excused by citing examples of equal or worse behaviour elsewhere.
Two wrongs do not make a right, don't you know?
The Israelis should withdraw from the areas under their illegal military occupation in order to restore peaceful equilibrium back to those areas.
Better still, they should all go back to Brooklyn or Golders Green - or wherever they originate from - and leave Palestine to the Palestinians?

Honestly, how many truly 'practising' Christians exist these days? Most of those who call themselves "Christians" do not follow the core precept of Christ's message of universal love. They are instead, driven by greed, pride & selfishness, most of their self-absorbed lives.
What a phoney & pretentious world we live in.

If you have paid any attention to his/her posts, Nirvana-bound loathes everything western and everything capitalist and everything related to organized religion. He/she also never makes actual reasoned arguments, only blanket conclusory statements. It is easier to point a finger at the things you don't like and call them names, than it is to actually come up with rasoned arguments.

There you go making 'blanket conclusive' allegations! What I do loathe is brazen hypocrisy, unbridled greed, unashamed pretentiousness & selfish, narcissistic hubris.
Having lived & travelled across four continents, hopefully gives me a broader perspective of the world we live in!(??)

The recent behaviour of the Israeli authorities against local Christian worshippers from the West Bank area is something that all people of principle - religious or otherwise - should be condemning. To read an example of a local priest's problems, go to http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/05/palestinian-christians... and then ask yourself if European "preciousness" is somewhat overdone?

As far I know is Israel welcomes Christians where many Christian TV stations are set up.If there has been an incident then its very unfortunate, but it is NOT STAE POLICY OF ISRAEL. What ever Israel is supposed to have done it is far, far exceeded by the ethnic cleansing of 100's of thousands of Christians from Syria, Egypt, Western Ethiopia, Iraq, Pakistan, Bali, Est Timor plus many othe countries by Islamic violence, beheadings, burning of homes, churches etc in accodence with the Direct Instructions from the Koran, Hadiths and Sudah.

A Statement from the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem, concerning the Israeli police measures on Holy Saturday - May 2013

We, the Heads of Churches in Jerusalem, watched with sorrowful hearts the horrific scenes of the brutal treatment of our clergy, people, and pilgrims in the Old City of Jerusalem during Holy Saturday last week.

A day of joy and celebration was turned to great sorrow and pain for some of our faithful because they were ill-treated by some Israeli policemen who were present around the gates of the Old City and passages that lead to the Holy Sepulcher.

We understand the necessity and the importance of the presence of security forces to ensure order and stability, and for organizing the celebration of the Holy Fire at the Church of the Resurrection.

Yet, it is not acceptable that under pretext of security and order, our clergy and people are indiscriminately and brutally beaten, and prevented from entering their churches, monasteries and convents.

We urge the Israeli authorities especially the Ministry of Interior and the police department in Jerusalem, to seriously consider our complaints, to hold responsibility and to condemn all acts of violence against our faithful and the clergy who were ill-treated by the police.

We deplore that every year, the police measures are becoming tougher, and we expect that these accidents will not be repeated and the police should be more sensitive and respectful if they seek to protect and serve.

We also denounce all those who are blaming the churches and holding them responsible of the Israeli measures during Holy Week celebrations.

On the contrary, the Heads of churches in Jerusalem condemn all of these measures and violations of Christians’ rights to worship in their churches and Holy Sites.

Therefore, we condemn all measures of closing the Old City and urge the Israeli authorities to allow full access to the Holy sites during Holy Week of both Church Calendars.

If I may say, Erasmus appears to have missed the point from the sentence that begins "It demands satisfaction in the name of freedom..." for a couple of paragraphs. The sheer GULF of disparity between Christians in the west lamenting minor constraints on their freedom of conscience compared to the lack of MOST freedoms for Christians in the middle east should be the prime issue here. Christians in the Saudi Kingdom, I'm sure, would be relieved to have their only concern be how to conscionably marry two men in a civil ceremony. The internet has a (mocking) term for this: "First world problems".

This isn't, as Erasmus notes, to disregard such issues as insignificant, but a liberal dose of perspective ought to be applied. To my mind, this is the lack of "self-awareness" the western Church would be guilty of, and not the persistent trappings of its prior pre-eminence.

I ask the author (who, understandably, is not likely to engage with people who comment):
is the power of Islam in primarily Islamic countries less or more than that of Christianity in Europe? Do Muslim clerics have more self-awareness than Christian ones? In Europe you can have Muslims preaching on streets, distributing their literature and approaching Christians to tell them about their religion. Please, try to see how it is with Christianity in the Muslim world.
If Christians demanded the opening of Saudi Arabia to Christian churches, lots Muslims worldwide would show absolute rejection to this. Actually: I ask the author of this article to try to settle up a stand in cosmopolitan Istanbul trying to give Christian literature to people walking by. Try that. Self-awareness?

The churches and Christians in islamic countries are definitely not running short of evidences which show that they are indeed hard-pressed victims. Atrocities committed against Christians reaching to the horrific extent of kidnapping Christian minor, especially girls in desperate attempts of forced conversion to islam, where the girls are raped (to break the girl's strength and dignity) and impregnated, threatened to be tortured and murdered (or threatening that any attempt of escape will lead to the death of her family)and/or forced to marry a muslim man where she becomes his sex slave and serve his other wives!!! so Christians not only suffer from the burning of their churches, attacks on their homes, properties and businesses destroyed, but also suffer from having their children and even wives kidnapped by muslims (whether an islamic group or muslim citizens who believe that they are doing islam a favor by enforcing a Christian into islam under threats of rape, torture and death). The persecutions suffered by Christians under islamic regimes are enough for both Christians (those under islamic regimes and those in European Countries). As for the meaning of the cross in the eyes of Christians of middle east, it is a symbolism of love, sacrifice, and salvation.

Christians are often at their strongest and finest when persecuted. Perhaps that's what the minority Coptic Church understands that its Western European counterparts don't. As Latourette said years ago in his history, where sin abounded, God's grace abounded all the more. Or in another of the Pauline epistles, where we are weak, God is strong.

Satan is a master deceiver and takes on all kinds of forms, such as in strange happenings in haunted houses, or magicians able to turn their walking sticks into serpents in the courts of Pharaoh, magic acts at magic shows that are humanly impossible and so on. Even the appearance of Mary at Lourdes and Fatima was the action of Satan, just as what the witch at Endor (1Samuel 28:7) did, or Satan who came to tempt Jesus during the time God severely tested Jesus, or when Satan entered Judas, to cause him to betray Jesus. We read in the bible in the book of Acts of all kind of demonic activities. The rosary and the litany is blasphemy, as all kinds of titles are given to Mary that applies only to Jesus the Saviour. Therefore Christians have to put on the armor of God to fight satanic activity. There is a lot of superstition in the Catholic Church. Catholics have a need to be free of superstition of making decision based on horoscopes, or praying for the dead whose spirits are watching us, offering money to priests in the thousand by getting into debt, praying to saints instead of praying to God. Those who are dead know nothing. They will wake up on the last day when Jesus returns. Mary is not our Mother; Mary is not God’s mother as said in the rosary, or the Queen of Heaven etc. Jesus is the Gate or the Way to God. The Catholic mass is a satire or a parody on the life and death of Jesus. It is superstition to believe, that the Eucharist is the actual body of Jesus Christ. Jesus can save the demoniac at the tomb as much as a baby in the womb, or the tax collector or Lazarus the beggar or the rich man Nicodemus or the wicked criminal at calvary, and so on. Education, birth, social status etc plays zero part in God’s redemptive plan. All that show of pomp and holiness are non issues, when it comes to where one will spend one’s eternity. The Church Age has ended. It is now a one on one basis, God and the believer in a private personal communication or prayer. Only Jesus Christ paid for sins of sinners. The church, priest, etc could not even pay for their own sins. If you confess your sins to a priest, then according to the bible, the priest has to confess his sins to you. The priests want to know your sins so that he can use them against if you go out of line, etc. Peter never put his foot down in Rome. Peter never claimed to be holy. He even told Jesus to depart from him, as Peter felt so ashamed of his own sinful nature. Paul was taken prisoner to Rome, to stand before Emperor Caesar. Paul called himself the worst of the worst sinners. Paul considered all his education and achievement in life as ‘dung.”

In the western world, people are quite free to choose whatever religious views they feel comfortable with. Which is exactly what they do. In the UK only about 6% of the population bother to go to church on a Sunday and I strongly suspect the majority of them are agnostic. It's hardly an environment of a "pandemic reality" of parental indoctrination. Same amongst Muslims in the UK where the apostasy rate (50%) of the 2nd and subsequent generations is the same as amongst Christians.

I'm sure that if you have children you will "force your beliefs" on your children. Atheism, humanism, secularism, democracy, environmentalism, whatever they happen to be, you pass them on to your children.

And so you should. It's what parents do. We give to our children the best of what our parents gave to us. When the grow up, they can choose what to reject and what to pass on. That is the way our culture is transmitted, a kind of meta-DNA, complete with a kind of evolutionary process.

I know parents who try not to influence their children, to "let them decide for themselves" from the earliest age. It has, in my experience, always been a disastrous experiment. To make children create their worldview from scratch is impossible -- you just create a vacuum which they fill however they can. In the end you force television beliefs on them.

Pretty sure. The figure comes from one of the most publicised and recent surveys of religious belief in the UK. Specifically, where both parents are practising Muslims, only 50% of offsprings continue to pratice the religion in adulthood.

It's strange but unsurprising that your attack is ONLY aimed to the Catholic Church, being other religious groups cited in the article. Orthodox Christians share some of the beliefs of the Catholics and you are silent about them. And nothing to say about Muslims. Can you explain it? Every faith or religion is based on belief without proof, yours included. Demonstrate your doctrine with proofs, you can't. So every religious group must be tolerant towards others. Most Catholics (including myself) have arrived, painfully, with the many mistakes of the past, to tolerance. But NOT fundamentalists like you. If you are right, what you can't prove, this certainty should lead you to respect others. And this should exclude the proselytism so intrinsic in fundamentalist Christian groups, where everybody and everything (including The Smurfs as an evangelical cousin told me, and excluding yourselves of course) is seen as Satanic, just as you have posted before. I don't think Jesus preached ARROGANCE and HATRED. Please, be respectful with the beliefs of others, being them according or not with yours. The War Religions are over, but people like you seem to live in the XVI century. We Catholics are not as stupid as you think, giving money (thousands as you said) to the Church and becoming ruined along the way. I say this with knowledge, as I work as a volunteer in a Catholic parish.

Erasmus would be well advised to pay attention to the fact that the deal cut between the Roman political class and Christianity was a "win-win" deal. The Roman political class provided protection for the Church and the Church in exchange pacified masses, often cheesed off by a high handed (some may call it cruel) practices of the ruling class.

The present situation in Europe shows that the present ruling class decided to go back on this deal. No longer they find a need to have a third party arguing their right to rule on their behalf. They think they can do it themselves using the tools of propaganda supplied by the digital age.

I think this is very dangerous course. If the definition of right and wrong is the hands of a narrow group of people (even if democratically elected) ethical standards are passed into hands of mob thus becoming very unstable. The history of French and Russian revolutions should be a warning. In the absence of God any crime becomes possible. Indeed the very notion of crime looses its meaning. Mass murders committed by socialist regimes of Hitler, Lenin and Stalin were legal, approved by legislature of the day and all the courts. Hitler was a democratically elected leader.

But even if the worse comes to pass the Christians may still be useful. Lenin and Stalin employed Catholic priests and nuns to sort parcels sent in by families to those imprisoned in communist concentration camps. The reason was trivial: they did not steal.

Well, it's somewhat odd that since 1945, religion has been in long term decline in Europe yet every European country has (eventually) opted for democracy and religious freedom. Strange, isn't it, that Germany in the 1920s and 1930s was a deeply religious country, as was Russia before the Bolsheviks. I also not that the Nazis set up their own Christian denomination which, at its peak, had 500,000 members.

Europe has simply not fallen into the hands of the mob. Nor does it look set to.

Why? The churches were pretty full. That speaks of "strength". That the churches did not stand up to right wing politics is nothing new. The Roman Catholic Church took full advantage of Europe's fascism in the period. Father Tiso, for example. Moreover, the fundamentalists today in the USA are closely allied with what many see as the extremes of the Republican Party. Indeed. many of them regard Democrats or people who don't believe in God as deeply "unAmerican". That's just a nasty form of paranoid nationalism (again).

Roger - you exaggerate, as usual, and the 'fundamentalist' churches are very few and far between. Monitoring organisations can only identify around 80 and most of those are small. Indeed, some do not qualify to be recognised as Christian churches. On the other hand some 94 Muslim TV channels & n number of radio stations spew a vast quantity of hatred into Europe - especially the UK - and North America. Three Muslim TV channels broadcasting from& in the UK have been taken off air for preaching hatred and violence. They especially hate Christians.

Non Christians commenting on the Christian religion are very often perceptive, analytical even correct. But their aim is off. Oh so much evil has been done in the name of Christ. If the perpetrators were indeed Christians there is much to be ashamed of. But those who claim the name of Christ are not, necessarily, true Christians. Genuine conversion requires a personal, spiritual and direct contact with Christ himself, which results in a concrete belief in and reliance upon the triune Godhead. Having cleared this up I see a right of true believers to defend themselves and a right for everyone else to criticize their behavior. But freedom from personal attack and persecution is everyone's right. A good way to discriminate between the real and counterfeit Christian is by observing both kinds. One may tell the difference clearly by the way women and children are treated.

"Triune Godhead": what a load of cobblers!
Constantine shoehorned three (patriarchally acceptable) religions into his new concoction, something like the stripes in toothpaste. Then he added some waffle about Mary to quieten the matriarchalists.
Call it politics, call it marketing, call it cynical, but please don't base your life on it!

Oh. I see. I think that you will find that Constantine had very little to do with the doctrines that came from the Second Church Council at Nicaea. His greatest contribution came from the Edict of Milan. He retained the title of pontifex maximus until his death. In other words, history seems to indicate that Constantine was never a true Christian. Rather, he was a pagan priest, or at least a pagan, as you seem to be. Why so much hostility in your prose? I agree with what I think you believe; i.e., that forced "conversion" was a bad idea but I don't think it upset Jesus very much.

I agree. There are very few of us. "True" conversion is not something one does - it is something done to one by God. May I suggest that you observe the Catholics in India (as I have done), especially, but not exclusively, those associated with the work begun by the Blessed (Mother) Teresa of Calcutta. I was an evangelical, independent missionary there and though I still do not agree with everything the Magisterium espouses, I became a Catholic. By their works we shall know them.

If you would like to hear my stories about the Sisters and other Indian experiences, I'm writing a book. In the meantime (I may never finish the book, much less ever get it published) if you wish, drop me a line and I'll bore you for a while...(I love Hindu's too)

Everything that God wants you to know of him, is in the bible that was completed and finalized in 96 AD or 97 AD. God gave believers a WARNING in Revelation 22:18-19. I will quote. “”18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: 19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.”” Almighty God has NO MORE messages for believers after the bible was finalized in 97AD. God allows Satan to break the silence between the natural and the supernatural, by permitting demonic activity, as in Ouija boards, magic shows, séances, false prophets, one of them said that the Angel Gabriel gave him messages for his book, fortune tellers, tarot card readers, demon possession, telepathy and so on. Some dreamers are charlatans and swindlers who look so real. If you want to live forever in God’s heaven, stay with the bible, it is your best chance to eternal life when this one ends. Jesus (God) did miracles ONLY to prove his credentials. If Christianity was based on miracles, Christianity would be a failure; because all those cured by miracles are not alive today. But Jesus is the WAY to heaven. There is NO OTHER WAY, and the easy way. Take it. No money, etc can buy your way to heaven.

You are taking Revelations 22:18-19 completely out of context. When John spoke of "this book" he was referring to the book of Revelations, not to the Bible -- he speaks specifically of "the book of this prophesy". John's contemporary readers would have understood that it was a warning not to creatively copy edit his Vision, as he had received it from God. It is a massive stretch to apply that verse to the Holy Bible; it would not be compiled for another 200 years.

The WHOLE BIBLE is ONE book of which the HOLY Spirit (GOD) is the Author. In fact Jesus said the he (Jesus) is the one the bible is all about. Moses WAS NOT present on the 1st, 2nd,..to the 6th day of creation. How did he know? God the author of the whole bible gave Moses the words to write. So also with John etc.

Mohammad said that devils gave him verses and the abrogated the verses. Mohammad said that his allah was very capricious. (Unpredictable, changeable, never know how he will react) Jesus called Satan a Liar and the father of lies. So if you need to make a decision on a extremely important matter you in your right mind, would not take the advice of a liar. 1.5 billion people would.